“Today is a day of shame for the armed forces,” Dr. Sasa, a spokesman for CRPH, an anti-junta group set up by deposed lawmakers, told an online forum.
“Military generals are celebrating Armed Forces Day after just killing more than 300 innocent civilians,” he said, giving a rough estimate of the tax on protests that erupted a few weeks ago.
At least four people were killed when security forces opened fire on a crowd protesting in front of a police station in the Dala suburb of Yangon in the early hours of Saturday, Myanmar Now reported. At least 10 people were injured, according to the news portal.
Three people, including a young man who plays on a local football team under the age of 21, were shot and killed in a protest in the city’s Insein neighborhood, a neighbor told Reuters.
Thirteen people have been killed in various incidents in Mandalay, Myanmar Now said. Deaths have also been reported in the Sagaing region near Mandalay, the eastern city of Lashio, the Bago region, near Yangon and elsewhere.
Myanmar Now said a total of at least 50 people were killed on Saturday. Reuters could not independently verify the numbers killed.
An army spokesman did not respond to calls for comment.
After presiding over a military parade in the capital, Naypyitaw, to mark Armed Forces Day, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing reiterated his promise to hold elections without giving any time.
“The army is trying to join hands with the whole nation to protect democracy,” the general said in a live broadcast on state television, adding that authorities also sought to protect the people and restore peace across the country.
“Violent acts that affect stability and security in making demands are inappropriate.”
The number of people killed in the riots since the coup against Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government is now nearly 380, based on Thursday’s tally and a tally held by an activist group.
Sutures in the head
In an ominous warning on Friday night, state television said protesters were “in danger of being shot in the head and back.”
The warning did not specifically say that security forces were ordered to shoot, but the junta previously tried to suggest that some fatal shootings came from the crowds.
But he pointed to the military’s determination to prevent any disruption around Armed Forces Day, which commemorates the beginning of resistance to the Japanese occupation in 1945, which was orchestrated by the father of Suu Kyi, the army’s founder.
Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s most popular civilian politician, remains in custody in an undisclosed location. Many other personalities in her party are also being held in custody.
In a week in which international pressure on the junta has increased with new US and European sanctions, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin attended the Naypyitaw parade, meeting a day earlier with high junta leaders.
“Russia is a true friend,” said Min Aung Hlaing. There were no signs of other diplomats at an event usually attended by dozens of foreign officials.
Support from Russia and China, which has also refrained from criticism, is important to the junta, as they are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and can block potential UN action.
Protesters took to the streets almost daily from the coup that derailed the slow transition of democracy in Myanmar.
Myanmar’s ethnic armed factions will not stand and do nothing if junta forces continue to kill protesters, said the leader of one of the main armed groups.
“Myanmar Armed Forces Day is not an Armed Forces Day, it is more like the day people were killed,” General Yawd Serk, chairman of the Shan State Restoration Council / Shan State Army South, told Reuters.
“It’s not about protecting democracy, it’s about how they harm democracy … If they continue to shoot at protesters and intimidate people, I think all ethnic groups wouldn’t just stand aside and do nothing.”